Be afraid
OPINION: Your old mate hears some of the recent uptick in farmer confidence has slipped since the political polls started leading a bit to the left, away from the current coalition of National, Act and NZ First.
OPINION: This old mutt has to giggle when organisations try to jump on bandwagons.
A recent example is when Fonterra decided it would get in on the International Women's Day trend.
However, its attempt to show just how woke it is turned out to be a PR fiasco.
Firstly, the dairy co-op announced it would hold a special panel to mark International Women's Day with a discussion on 'breaking the bias'.
Problem was all the members of its discussion panel were men.
Predictability, social media - i.e. people with too much time on their hands - took umbrage and outrage about the gaff.
Fonterra was then forced to quickly backtrack and include a couple of women in the panel, as well as apologise for being such a terrible sexist, unthinking monstrosity.
Maybe the dairy co-op should just stick to collecting, manufacturing and selling milk and leave the PC, woke claptrap to others.
A brilliant result and great news for growers and regional economies. That's how horticulture sector leaders are describing the news that sector exports for the year ended June 30 will reach $8.4 billion - an increase of 19% on last year and is forecast to hit close to $10 billion in 2029.
Funding is proving crucial for predator control despite a broken model reliant on the goodwill of volunteers.
A major milestone on New Zealand's unique journey to eradicate Mycoplasma bovis could come before the end of this year.
We're working through it, and we'll get to it.
The debate around New Zealand's future in the Paris Agreement is heating up.
A technical lab manager for Apata, Phoebe Scherer, has won the Bay of Plenty 2025 Young Grower regional title.